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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l. M. G. FARMER.

APPARATUS FOR FORMING WIRE BY BLEGTROLYSIS. No. 338,941.

Patented Mar. 30, i886.

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(NO Mdel.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

M. G. FARMER.

APPARATUS FOR PORMING WIRE BY BLBGTROLYSIS. No. 338,941. Patented Mar. 30, 1886.

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UNITED STATESv PATENT OEEICEo MOSES G. FARMER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR FORMING WIRE BY ELECTROLYSIS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 338,941, dated March 30, 1886` Application filed June 13,1885. Serial No. 168,638. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, MosEs G. FARMER, a citizenof the United States, residing in New York, in the county and State of New York,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Forming Wire by Electrolysis, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the organization of apparatus for forming copper and other wire by electro-deposition; and its object is to simplify the process and cheapen the cost of producing it.

In general terms the invention consists in passing through one or more electro-deposition vats continuous wires of conducting material and depositing thereon by electrolysis pure copper or other metal or metals. After the wires have been thus increased in size to any desired extent they are drawn down by the usual processes to the required size, and thus given a required degree of hardness. A sufficient quantity of the wire thus obtained may be employed as the foundation for 2 5 the succeeding deposition, providing homogeneous wire is to be formed, and in this manner a portion of the wire obtained from each treatment is used as the basis for the subsequent treatment.

It has been proposed to apply to lengths of wire a single coating of metal by passing them once through a vat.

In another application of even date herewith, Serial No. 168,637, there is described an apparatus for forming sheet metal by electricity, in some respects resembling that described in this application. rlhe deposition, however, is in that instance made upon only one surface ofthe cathode, the other being coated with a non-conductor.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the invention, Figure l shows in vertical transverse section four vats and the connected apparatus, and Fig. 2 is a plan view of the vats.

Referring to the figures, B B B B represent four electro-deposition vats, each of which is equipped with two systems of rollers, a a and A A, across or between which there passes a 5o series of wires, b b b, &c. The rollers are known process of drawing wire, and sufficient preferably grooved, for the purpose of keeping the wires in position and out of contact with each other. The wires also extend beneath other guidingrollers C2 C2 and C3, and as they pass these rollers they arepressed down into the corresponding electro-deposition vat, B, by means of suitable rollers, C C C', &c. One of the rollers-C3, for instance-is provided with any suitable means for revolving it, and thus carrying the wires through the vats. There may be one, two, or more vats B, as desired. Any or all of these rollers may be grooved, as found convenient and necessary, and one of them is driven by any suit-able power. The wire as it passes through the vat is designed to receive a deposit of copper or other metal, and for this purposeV the vat contains an electrolyte consisting of a suitable solution of the metal. The negative pole of the generator or other suitableco source of electricity, E, is connected by a conductor, 1, with the series of rollers a or A in i each vat; or they may be,`in any other convenient manner, connected with the conducting-wires b. The positive pole of the battery is connected by a conductor, 2, with suitable anode-plates, d d and d d', located in the deposition-vats. There are two series of anodeplates, one above and the other below the wires, and thus metal will be dissolved from the anodes and deposited from the solution upon the wires evenly as they pass through the vat. The wires are moving continuously, and at each successive bath the different positions receive additional deposit, thus gradually increasing in size. 'Ihe deposit, it will be noticed, is continuous. Then the wires have been thus increased sufficiently in size, they are removed and drawn by any wello portions of the small wire thus formed may 9 be employed to supplant those originally employed for receiving the deposit where homogeneous wire is to be produced. Compound wire-that is, a wire having a core of one metal, such as steel, for instance, and an outside of some other metal, such as copper-may be made in this manner. In this case the wires to compose the cores are employed for receiving the deposit. roo

I claim as my inventionl In testimony whereof I have hereunto sub- 1o The combination, substantially as hereinscribed my name this 3d day of June, A. D.

before set forth, of an electro-deposition Vat, 1885.

a series of endless Wires, portions only of each 5 of which are in the vat at any time, means for l MOSES G. FARMER.

passing the same continuously through the vat, and two series of horizontal anodes, one Vitnesses:

series being above and the other series belowr DANL. W. EDGEGOMB,

the wires. CHARLES A. TERRY. 

